


The Stars and the Trees

by haymitch (noblydonedonnanoble)



Category: Peter Pan & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-07
Updated: 2015-04-07
Packaged: 2018-03-21 18:52:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3702393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noblydonedonnanoble/pseuds/haymitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Hook discovers an abandoned Lost Boy in the woods, he brings him back to the Jolly Roger.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Stars and the Trees

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this last semester for a creative writing assignment; the prompt was to tell a familiar fairytale, but to manipulate the reader's sympathies.

            At night, if it’s quiet enough, Hook can hear them: the Lost Boys, in the dark confines of the forest, screaming and singing until their voices go hoarse. Their carefree nature leaves him feeling nostalgic, in a confusing way that he can’t quite articulate no matter how many times he attempts to describe the feeling to… well, Smee, mostly. He doesn’t care to bring it up with the rest of his crew. Although he knows that they too would understand, he doesn’t fancy the idea of seeming overly attached to Pan; he should be past that now, surely.

             Smee knocks on the door to the captain’s quarters in the wee hours of the morning, on one such night when the Boys’ shrieking has carried across the island. Hook rises from his desk and cracks open the door. “What is it?” he croaks out, his voice scratchy from disuse.

            “I believe I’ve found another one, sir.”

            Immediately, Hook grows somber. He retreats into his quarters to retrieve his coat, his hat, and his sword—even after all these years, he can’t risk leaving his ship without it.

            He and Smee silently disembark from the ship, slipping into the cold, dark forest and treading lightly, even now, because they don’t want to count on the darkness to conceal their presence from the Lost Boys. Leaves from overgrown trees sweep at the pair as they creep along, as though even the plants disapprove of their presence on the island.

            “It’s not far now, Captain. He’s in the clearing up ahead,” Smee whispers.

            The boy lies unconscious on the ground. His clothes are in tatters, his skin is bloodied and bruised. When Hook crouches down to examine him more closely, he notes a broken nose. “I think you are right about this one, Smee.” He looks at the boy for another moment. “Let us bring him back to the ship.”

            Their trek back is slower, more arduous, as they’re now carrying a stretcher between them. But they manage return to the ship before the rest of the crew has awoken, where they immediately put him in the captain’s quarters. Hook settles down in a chair at the boy’s bedside, sending Smee to wake the ship’s doctor.

            Once the doctor has tended to the boy’s wounds, he leaves. Hook lingers at the bedside, perusing a book as he waits for his guest to wake up, which doesn’t happen until well into the afternoon. The boy begins to squirm as he slowly regains consciousness, more so as he begins to realize that there is something wrong with his surroundings.

            The bellow that he lets out at the sight of Hook is loud and guttural and it should startle the pirate, but it doesn’t. He blinks down at the boy as he shouts desperately, something about, “What’re you doing this for? Oh, Peter’ll skin you when he finds out you’ve kidnapped me,” jumbled up with countless other pieces of nonsense.

            Hook holds up a hand to silence him, giving him a hard glare. Then he says, his tone calm and level: “Peter will skin me, will he? Just for kidnapping you.”

            The boy nods vigorously.

            “If that is the case, then I assume that it was not Peter Pan who did this.”

            Suddenly he doesn’t look so sure. His silence is enough confirmation for Hook, and after a pause, the captain asks, “What is your name?”

            “Tootles,” mumbles the boy.

            “How old are you, Tootles?”

            “What’s that got to do with anything?”

            Hook stares at Tootles, trying to size him up. “Seventeen?”

            “Sixteen.”

            “I bet you were Pan’s favorite,” the pirate says softly.

            Tootles looks away, apparently not pleased with what he’s hearing, but that’s fine because Hook goes on. “Pan’s right hand man: that was you. Saw the world before you, and it was your playground. But no one can play forever, and not all of us are as _lucky_ as Peter Pan; the rest of us have to grow up some time. Am I right, Tootles?”

            Absolute silence from the boy.

            “And maybe you saw the early signs, noticed Peter treating you differently. Listening to what you said a little less, valuing the opinion of the younger boys a little more. Nothing you could do was right. But you figured it would pass. You thought of all the other Boys who left when they were around your age, but you were never going to do that to Peter, not you.”

            “Shut it,” Tootles mutters.

            “Except now you know they did not leave. Because then one day Peter pulled you aside and you thought perhaps you were going to work out your differences.”

            He raises his voice to say again, “Shut it.”

            “But no. He just wanted to make sure you knew that you were no longer welcome in Neverland. ‘We all swore that we weren’t going to grow up,’ he told you. ‘But you lied. You grew up.’ And Neverland… well, you and I both know that Neverland is not a place for grown-ups.”

            “Stop!” Tootles screams.

            Hook finally listens to the boy’s plea and he grows quiet. The silence becomes increasingly unbearable for Tootles, until he bursts out with, “Why does he hate you so much?”

            “Peter despises the idea that his friends will one day grow up around him while he remains a child.”

            “Yes,” the boy agrees. “But what’s that got to do with you?”

            The pirate captain smiles patiently. “While my crew and I remain in Neverland, he will never be able to forget that someday, his friends will grow up before his eyes, just as all of us did.”

            “All… _all_ of you? No way. You can’t honestly mean… No, that can’t be right. There are so many of you.”

            “There once were even more of us, but our numbers have diminished.” Hook notes Tootles’ furrowed brow, and promptly elaborates: “For decades, we coexisted. Begrudgingly so, but we were still peaceful. When Pan left one of his Boys out to die in the forest, I would find them; help them, if they were not past help; bring them out of Neverland, if they did not want to join my crew. But I suppose Pan was watching, he saw how our numbers grew, and it began to worry him. He filled the heads of his Lost Boys with hatred for us, so gradually that they never noticed the change. They never questioned why they were fighting Pan’s fight. And they killed some of us, too. Not realizing that we were once Lost Boys ourselves.”

            Although Hook doesn’t intend his explanation as an accusation, Tootles’ demeanor changes as he shrinks up against the wall and becomes very small. “I did that. I’ve killed members of your crew. Just ‘cause Peter told me to. Why… why did I do that?”

            “You thought it was the right thing to do. Understandably so—Pan can be very convincing. We believe that he bewitches the Lost Boys or somehow shrouds your understanding of the truth; it is the only explanation we have for why you never recognized the men among my crew when you came face-to-face.”

            Tootles isn’t even listening to Hook; instead, he’s staring blankly at a corner of the cabin where the wall meets the ceiling. “I didn’t even think twice,” he mumbles. “I can’t believe it. What other awful things have I done because of him?”

             “It would be unwise to dwell on it,” Hook warns. He’s seen this often enough, seen Lost Boys drive themselves to the brink of insanity over the thought of all they did while under Peter Pan’s control. “Particularly because I have something else that I must ask you to consider.”

            “What?” the boy snaps.

            “You are welcome as a guest on my ship for as long as you are still recovering, but we must address the matter of what you will do once you are well again. If you feel so inclined, you may make yourself at home as one of my crew.”

            “I don’t know if I could do that, just join up with the bad guy. Even if you’re… well, even if maybe you’re not so bad after all.”

            Hook nods. “You would not be the first to feel that way. And if that is the case, once you are well I will assist you in leaving Neverland, and in finding a home.”

            “Just like that?”

            “Just like that.”

            Tootles grimaces and looks down at his lap. “I’ll think about it, and I guess I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve decided.”

            “Of course. Take your time.”

The pirate is about to say something else, but before he can, his crew erupts into a chorus of shouts. Feet thunder across the floor boards above and below, and moments later Smee bursts through the door, having disregarded all pretenses of decorum with his captain.

            “Sir, one of our scouts from the forest has returned. It looks as though Pan and the Boys are preparing to launch an attack.”

            Hook jumps to his feet immediately. “How soon?”

            “Within the hour.”

            “Are you joking? That doesn’t make any sense!” Tootles exclaims. Hook and Smee look to the boy curiously, and he rushes to explain. “Peter makes plans weeks in advance but I didn’t know anything about this. He said it wasn’t supposed to be ready for ages.”

            “What wasn’t supposed to be ready?” Smee asks, his voice low and shaking.

            Hook, on the other hand, says nothing, but his penetrating gaze leaves Tootles feeling immensely anxious.

            “He… he had some plan. Said it would get you to go away forever and leave Neverland to the Lost Boys. But he was keeping it to himself. Only thing that he would say is that it would probably change… everything.”

            “Do you think it’s a bluff, Captain?”

            The pirate frowns and he strokes his chin thoughtfully. “I believe we should prepare for the worst,” he says at last. “If Pan is executing some larger plan, it is crucial that we meet him blow for blow.”

            From outside, the crew begins shouting anew: “Lost Boys spotted! Coming from both port and starboard sides!”

            Smee promptly rushes out of the captain’s quarters again so that he can help the crew prepare for battle, but Hook remains in the room, his attention fixed on Tootles. “I can hardly ask you to join in our fight, not now. You are in no condition for that. But I must warn you not to seek out your old comrades. Chances are Pan has bewitched them so that they will not recognize you. They will think you are one of us, and quite possibly kill you without a thought.”

            “W-what?” Tootles stammers. “I was one of them just yesterday. You can’t really think they’ve forgotten me already.”

            “I am not certain,” Hook admits. “But in the past, he has always colored the memories of the Lost Boys. They will remember you, but not as you are; all they will have in their minds is a caricature.”

            Tootles grimaces, and at this thought, he begins to tear up for the first time since he came to in Hook’s quarters. Rather than speak and risk his voice shaking, he just nods, which the pirate captain takes as confirmation that he will remain in the room. And so Hook leaves to join in the fight.

            The first Lost Boys have just reached the ship when he steps out on deck. They engage some of the crew in battle immediately, fighting viciously and shouting that the pirates should leave while they still have a chance.

             Hook pulls his sword, making to run toward the nearest member of his crew, who is struggling in combat against one of the oldest of the Boys. But before he can make it there, he hears a loud thump and turns on the spot to see Peter Pan before him. A smirk distorts Peter’s face, making him appear decades older than his boyish features would otherwise suggest.

            “Peter.”

            “Captain. I noticed that you found my present. How _is_ Tootles doing?”

            The pirate glances toward his cabin, but at the last moment he makes a quick decision and he replies, “Smee and I failed to reach him in time. We brought him back to the ship and gave him a proper sea burial, which is more than you would ever do.”

            “What a shame.” Peter’s voice is completely flat, void of any emotion. “After the remark that he made last night, I was rather hoping that he would see today’s spectacle.”

            “Remark?” Hook can’t help his curiosity.

            “Yes. He and I had our little… talk. And then he told me—and mind you that this was intended in the most horrid way imaginable—‘You and Hook are just the same’. Funny, isn’t it? How right he is.”

            Hook scowls. “I’m nothing like you. I could never do what you do, just throw away the lives of so many young boys.”

            But Peter’s smile just grows wider, becomes even more manic. “We’ll see.” And with a chuckle, he leaps into the air and flies toward the other end of the ship, where a majority of the fighting seems to be taking place.

            The captain sprints below deck, rushing past Lost Boys who all glance toward him longingly, but who no doubt have received orders from Pan not to go near him themselves. Because Peter Pan would never dream of allowing any of his Lost Boys to come away with the glory that he deserves.

            On the lowest level of his ship, there is a locked storage compartment, to which he possesses the only key. None of the crew knows what he keeps there, because he intended it for only the direst of circumstances. And although Pan might just be gloating, this is the first time Hook has found himself truly nervous for the safety of his entire crew.

            The room is vacant, save for a small, practically empty flask of fairy dust. Nearly a decade before, Peter had dropped the flask and Hook had retrieved it. It had been immediately tempting to use it, because the thrill of using fairy dust was something that Hook had never forgotten. But he had successfully saved it for years.

            Now he pockets the flask and runs back up the stairs, quickening his pace when he notes that he can no longer hear any shouting or clashing of swords from above.

            It becomes immediately clear why when he returns: the entire crew and all of the Lost Boys have been knocked out, and their bodies lie strewn across the deck. Hook stares at the scene, dumbfounded. He was only gone for a few minutes; how could this have happened so quickly?

            “Don’t worry!” Peter calls down from above, and Hook cranes his neck to see Pan hanging one-handed from the mast. “I wanted some time for us to talk properly, so I used a sleeping spell on them all.”

            He drops slowly from the sky, quickly amending his statement with, “Well, it’s just a sleeping spell as long as I reverse it in time. Otherwise…”

            “I think I can imagine,” Hook mutters.

            “I’m sure you can,” Peter agrees, grinning widely. “So let’s talk.”

            “What about?”

            Pan begins to pace back and forth, although his feet are still nearly a foot in the air. “The terms of you and your crew leaving Neverland. Forever.”

            “You cannot be serious.”

            “Oh, I’m deadly serious. How many times do I have to tell you? Neverland _isn’t for grown-ups_.”

            “Nothing you can say will convince me to leave. Not when I know that for as long as you live, you will be taking children, and killing them as they near adulthood.”

            Peter chortles, loud and guttural and it makes Hook’s skin crawl. “If you don’t agree to leave, I won’t wake them. Every last man and boy on this ship will die, and it will all be your fault.”

            “You can’t do that!” Hook protests. His hand hovers around his sword, but he can’t attack Pan now because he has no idea how to restore his crew and the Boys.

            “I can, and you and I both know I would, if it would mean that you’d stop sticking your nose where you don’t belong. If you agreed to leave, I would wake them all right now and the Boys and I would let you go.”

            The pirate grimaces. He could agree to leave and, in doing so, save them all, but if he left Neverland, there would no longer be anyone there to save the Boys after Pan so carelessly discards them.

            “How do I know you’re not bluffing?” he asks.

            Pan pulls a flask out of his pocket, the exact size and shape of the container of fairy dust that Hook holds secreted in his waistcoat. Pan’s own flask contains a dark blue, gooey liquid. He stoops down toward a boy who can’t be more than nine years old, and pours a single drop of the liquid into the slightly gaping mouth of the child.

            Immediately, the boy gasps and blinks, sitting up and staring around with immense confusion. “Peter?” he mumbles. “Wha’s goin’ on?”

            All it takes is a snap of Peter’s fingers before the boy is out again.

            “There is enough in this flask to wake everyone,” he tells Hook. “No catch. So long as you leave. If you ever returned, I assure you I would be quick to kill you.”

            Hook swallows nervously. He cannot, in good conscience, make either decision; either way, the deaths of so many will be on his hands.

            Out of the corner of his eye, he notes movement. He doesn’t turn his head, because he doesn’t want to draw Pan’s gaze to anything new, but the object slowly moves into his line of sight until Hook realizes that it is Tootles. Peter, believing him to be dead, must not have reached him with his charm. Having emerged from the captain’s quarters, he is now pulling himself gradually across the floor, so as not to attract Pan’s attention.

            “Was this really your big plan?” Hook asks loudly. “To turn on your own Lost Boys, just for this?”

            “I’d do worse if it meant getting your crew out of Neverland.”

            “Please, Peter, you and I know too well that this is about me, not the rest of my crew. You’re going to have to stop pretending eventually.”

            Tootles is drawing closer, gripping a dagger in his hand that Hook recognizes immediately as the one he keeps stashed in his desk. Meanwhile, Peter scowls. “This doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

            “Say that all you like, but that won’t make it true!” Hook almost leaves it there, but his anger gets the better of him and he continues. “It has _everything_ to do with me! You promised Mum that you would look after me, but the moment you realized that I was normal, you decided that I wasn’t worth your time. As though it’s my fault that the curse only passes on to the eldest.”

            At this revelation, Tootles freezes in his spot, staring between Pan and Hook with wide eyes.

            Peter’s voice is shaking as he says, “I could forgive you for getting older, save for your consistent refusal when I ask of you one thing… just one thing.”

            “I cannot slit the throat of my own brother! Nor will I order any of my men to do it; no one should have a life on their hands.”

            “Think of the countless boys I’ve left to die. The boys I’ll kill if you spare my life.”

            “So stop betraying them.”

            “They betrayed me!” After this outburst, his voice grows almost imperceptibly quiet, and if Hook were not standing so close, he wouldn’t be able to hear. “They were the ones who grew up, after they promised they wouldn’t. Mum left me behind and you left me behind and _they all leave me behind_. I can’t bear it anymore. I just want to die.”

            Tootles chooses this moment to act. “Then die!” he shouts, lunging forward and there’s hardly time for it to register to Peter that Tootles is there before the child is grabbing at his shirt with one hand, while with the other hand he drags Hook’s dagger across his throat.

            Pan’s body drops to the wooden floor with a thud, and Hook crumples along with it. He buries his face in his brother’s chest, letting out gut-wrenching sobs. Tootles hesitates for a moment before crouching down and mumbling, “I’m… I’m sorry, Captain.”

            Hook doesn’t reply; he simply reaches into Peter’s pocket and pulls out the flask, holds it out for Tootles so that he can revive the crew and the Boys.


End file.
